The Clarinet BBoard

The Clarinet BBoard The C4 standard

New Topic | Go to Top | Go to Topic | Search | Help/Rules | Smileys/Notes | Log In

Previous Message | Next Message

Re: "Epher"

Author: Ebclarinet1
Date: 2006-04-19 14:25

Am really glad you're excited about playing the Eefer as it is a lot of fun. Often in the older band arrangements of orchestral overtures you play the concert master's parts from these works. Often you are up there skying with the piccolo and flutes above the rest of the band. Sousa marches are generally great Eefer parts too and my high school had an arrangement where I had the piccolo obligato in Stars & Stripes Forever. That was way cool.

Because of this you are almost always a soloist as YOU CAN BE HEARD. As a consequence you must be very careful of your intonation. Sit with a tuner and see where your good and bad notes are and decide if you can you use addoitional keys to make those notes more in tune. High E is an especially bad note on many Eefers but you can generally add the sliver key to get it in tune. These intonation problems are compounded in that the flutes and piccolos are going SHARP as you're going flat. A short barrel is an easy fix for that problem and I usually carrry one extra in my case for those sorts of gigs.

I started on Eefer 41 years ago, so my opinions might be different from a person who started on Bb and transferred to Eefer. Eefer is more of an embouchure test than the Bb clarinet. You need to keep a pretty tight embouchure in order to control the sound a little bit better. Some Bb players find that going to the Eefer offers much less resistance and they blow too easily. For a long while I was playing 4-5 strength reeds but now I use 3- 3 1/2 strength and sound better, but you might want to experiment with that too. Everyone is different. I use chopped off Bb reeds or use a barrel that will allow you to use a Bb reed without chopping.

Above all HAVE FUN WITH IT!

Eefer guy

Reply To Message | Avail. Forums | Flat View

Newer Topic | Older Topic

Topics

Author

Date

"Epher" new

Katelyn

2005-12-02 01:20